This time it’s in Chatfield, where two students have been “disciplined” for hanging a black doll over a stage railing by a noose. The Winona Daily News quoted a parental source claiming the two were suspended for two days. Some in the school say that’s not punishment enough.

The paper carries a quote by the school’s principal that suggest that the students involved are more stupid than racist.

Principal Randy Paulson said that a poster supporting a white supremacist group was found previously on the locker of one of the students responsible for hanging the doll.

Despite these two acts, along with reports the same student had previously used racial slurs toward (Parent Tammi) Stoos’ daughter and other minority students, Chatfield School District officials said they would not necessarily call what the students did a hate crime, although the students were disciplined under their racial harassment policy.

“I think what happened here is that we had a couple of students that did this incident without a lot of thought, and not realizing that this would be a racial act,” Paulson said.

Blink. Blink. A student who has used racial slurs and had a white supremacist poster on his locker didn’t realize hanging a black doll in a noose would be a racial act?

Meanwhile, in Jena, Louisiana on Monday, a nationalist noose-carrying group is planning a protest against Martin Luther King Day. One fairly wonders what kind of behavior the participants exhibited when they were in high school.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts where he was vice president of programming for Berkshire Broadcasting Company. Previously, he was an editor at the RKO Radio network in New York, and WHDH Radio in Boston. He is the founder of the MPR News’ website.

Related Blog Posts

And we wonder why our kids are becoming more violent and intolerant. The actions of our government, the behavior of extremists, 9/11 are all examples of what happens when we become too “tribal”. Hatred of any kind needs to be stopped or we will self destruct, or should I say remain on our current track of self-destruction. The students responsible for the noose and the white supremacy poster, and racial slurs probably did act without “a lot of thought” because they are incapable of it. However that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a hate crime and shouldn’t be treated as such.

Candace L.

Cecelia, your point is well taken, but you have missed something critical. Cultural diveristy efforts have failed to each all of basic respect for each other. Respect needs to be a given, even before one is aware of cultural/”tribal” differences. We are all God’s Children. Someone many in all of our insitutions have missed this. This goes for school administrators as well as the students.

Candi

Two days amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist and the principal should be fired for this. There are kids in that school who will be back in class in a couple days with these two idiots, walking the halls in fear. If the two had threatened anyone with guns on a website, they would be expelled. How is that different from hanging a black doll with a noose. Both are threats of violence, the second being racist on top of it.

cecelia

Candace & Candi.. I believe we are all on the same page with different terminology.

embrace differences, but when it comes to race, there is only one: The Human Race. Ethnicity, diversity, culture, etc., are no different than the numerous divisions of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. When we begin to embrace our beliefs, culture, ethnicity, etc is when we become tribal. When we become tribal we believe there is only one way to live “correctly” and everyone else either has to be convinced to do so or die. The human race is on track to self-destruct because for whatever reason we can’t learn to live in peace together.

Perhaps it’s time to re-listen to John Lennon’s “Imagine”

Tammi

Just wanted to say thank you all. Hope your days are full of goodness.

anonymous

I think this was blown out of proportion. The students never get Martin Luther King day off (with the exception of this year because of the new quarter), and if they do, they are still presented a program on racism on that day or some days later. One of the most ridiculous things that Chatfield does, instead of allowing racism, is being too intolerant of anything that could even be considered racism. One minority student is immune from punishment, because his mother has threatened to sue Paulson for racism if he does, even though her son has threatened to kill other students on several occasions.